Most people might not realize what web development really is. Now I bet most of you think – “its self explanatory – its right there in the title”, but is it? The web developer is responsible for planning, designing, developing, testing, and releasing the website to the public. A big chunk of the homepage should contain images. Why? Simply because of an old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words“. This week’s post will be about one of the things I have to do as a web developer – photo editing.

Example

Recently, I had a pleasure redesigning our website . One of the biggest problems I ran into while redesigning NOVAE’s website was our team’s portfolio images. We took several pictures of each member on our green screen – that was quite easy, and a lot of fun. Removing the green background without jeopardizing hair texture, and quality of the picture – that was tricky. Luckily, I found a Refine Edge tool in Photoshop. This tool is so powerful on the newest version of Photoshop that I was able to remove green screen background and yet leave every trace of hair untouched. I was so impressed, I practiced using that tool, and that particular technique for the rest of the team’s portfolio pictures. You can see the end result on our About Us page.

Photo Editing

Nowadays with content management systems we combine designing and developing phases together. It’s easier – and using templates one would think that all we have to do is replace placeholder text and whoala! If only it was…unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Statistically, if we can purchase a premium template, chances are that another 20,000 copies have already been sold to other clients. So if I replace place-holder text and images that come with the template I will still end up with the website that looks just like those other 20,000 copies that have already been sold. What do you do? Go!

Photo editing is a small part of designing process that pushes the look of the website from easy on the eyes to something more.

Photo editing may sound to be a tedious work with little reward. I am here to beg the difference. I myself am a newbie when it comes to photo editing however my teammates excel at this. That just shows when you combine training time, and being natural artist, you can accomplish so much. Although we are a new group and I, personally, have not done too many photo editing just yet; however, some of our others have, so just a little something to show off. Click HERE to see an example.

Conclusion

In conclusion I wanted to make sure that everyone reading this understands that web development isn’t just plug and play. Developing websites takes time. During that time we plan, design, develop, test, and release the product to the public. Photo editing is part of the design phase, and even though its not considered to be one of the most important skill every web developer has to possess, its by far one of the most rewarding. That’s how we push our websites beyond easy on the eyes. 🙂